​Russell Peters Under Fire for Sexist Jokes at Junos

Although the Juno Awards may still have a long way to go when it comes to representing diversity, last night's (April 2) ceremony should have been a celebration of women's contributions to Canadian music — Sarah McLachlan was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Buffy Sainte-Marie was honoured with the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award and artists like Tanya Tagaq, Feist and Alessia Cara delivered stunning live performances. Instead, the evening's broadcast was sullied with a slew of sexist remarks from co-host Russell Peters.

A growing online backlash against the comedian's hosting job has drawn attention to a series of troubling comments that were made before and during the show.

Peters opened the evening by surveying the crowd and cracking: "Look at all the young girls. This is a felony waiting to happen."

As astutely pointed out by Kira-Lynn Ferderber in a column for the Ottawa Citizen, the women in the audience deserved more respect, while the men who were present deserved "a better education than this." Many people, sharing their reactions online, agree.

"Look at all the young girls. This is a felony waiting to happen."
sexual
assault
is
not
a
jokehttps://t.co/4gbBupCuJZ

Unfortunately, Peters's sexist remarks began even before the official broadcast went to air. An ET Canada video from the pre-show red carpet captures the comedian posing with a male and female Mountie. "I'm only mounting one of you," he says to them, before turning to the male and saying, "It's not you."